School Yard

[Tom_in_CA]

Also Goldstrike, you say:

..... Those facilities ..... we all expect to be free of holes/depressions and any anomalies.......

Sure. Agreed. Fine. But what is the implicit statement you are making here? What is the inference ? HOLES, of course. (damage, etc...). Ok, then we simply DON'T leave holes. Do you leave holes? If so, fine, then don't go metal detecting. But so long as we're leaving no trace, then .... the implicit statement of what you're saying doesn't hold true or apply.

Might someone else who "sees the man with the strange machine and lesche" *think* you're about to leave holes? SURE. You can never 100% control what others *might* think. So go at low traffic times and avoid such lookie-lous.

 

[tarajudy]

I just detect at mostly beaches now and some in VIRRGINIA OCEAN FRONTS ARE POSTED NO METAL DETECTING ON NATIONAL PARK GROUNDS.
NEWYORK: you can get a permit to detect on JONES BEACH STATE PARKS BEACHES and that's ok with me. (just another for of lets see what we can get money from)

 

[Goldstrike]

Tom, I was purely addressing the school issue and not anywhere else. Not parks, not beaches, not deserts, not anywhere else other than schools because all of those other areas are or should be open to public use. I know many areas are banned from metal detecting for a myriad of reasons which we are not discussing in this thread of posts. I am completely on your side as far as those other areas are concerned and will defend our right to metal detect those areas in a civil manner.

When it comes to schools, I was very protective of my children when they were young and now we have grandkid's and I am likewise protective of them and where they spend their daytime hours i.e. in schools.
Speaking strictly for myself and only for myself, I will leave the schools alone as far as metal detecting goes. I will say it again, schools are dedicated facilities for our children's learning and education and I for one would not want to see anyone using them for other purposes that really do not do anything for the school or my grandchildren (other than show and tell) time! As for anyone else, go and detect them day or night to your hearts content like some do but please don't ask me to go with you.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I have always found it is best to be courteous to all that question me detecting and found most are just curious what we are doing. I have been ask to leave many times do to someone else that made a mess or P.O. someone. Some I was able to still detect and some I was not able to. I have had the cops called on me too by someone seeing me at one of the school yards I had detected, this was a female cop and she came down the street and pulled up real fast that it scared me like I was a known criminal. She said a concerned citizen called in and said I was digging up the school yard and she had to check it out. I told her to look around and see if she could see where I had dug, then showed her my finds which were mostly new coins and a few wheat pennies plus the trash i had dug too. When I got done explaining what i do and the fun this hobby is I think she was going to buy one for her husband to keep him out of the bars, Wish me good luck and thank me for showing her what i was doing. Other times cops have been called when we detect the curb strip and we most have been decent and say we are within our right, but ask us to go down the street a bit and even tell us where a better spot is, one I even sold my Extra Sovereign I had so he could try it. You get some bad ones too and after explaining what we do, some get power happy and want us to leave, so we learned to say " O.K. and may God Bless you", They don't know what to say.
One thing with schools as you say is go when not a lot of activity going on which is after 6 on weekdays and most any time on weekends when nothing is going on. Never ever go when school is going on as you are asking for trouble.
I have a golf course I have been detecting since 1977 and this course was a old race track for horses and also used for play days where many people would come from other towns in the area to spend time competing in different games, had a baseball Field in it too. Now this land was donated to the town for recreational purposes, but is a golf course now and only a golf course. There is a few of us that go there to detect, but we made a agreement with the grounds keeper as we go early spring before the start up or late fall after they are done for the year and agreed to stay off the greens and cover any hole we make, so we have that problem solved.
The whole point is being nice to everyone and respect there wishes and with some you know has no authority we just move to a different are away from them.

Rick